The world's tallest buildings are cheating.

The world's tallest buildings are not quite what they seem. For decades, architects have used a technique known as "vanity height", the gap between a skyscraper's highest usable floor and its official peak, to claim records that don't always reflect reality. The results have sparked international disputes, bruised national egos, and rewritten the rulebook on what a building actually is.

From the Petronas Towers' controversial dethroning of Chicago's Willis Tower to Stalin's obsession with spires and Dubai's transformation into a city built on soft power, the story of the world's tallest buildings is as much about politics and pride as it is about engineering. With the Jeddah Tower now rising toward a kilometre above the Saudi desert, that story is far from over.